SECRETARY’S REPORT 23 
furthermore the garments, feathers, and Indian and European orna- 
ments as depicted by Catlin can be readily identified. Mr. Courtais 
is continuing his work, and it is hoped that the entire program will 
be completed within the next 2 or 3 years. 
Between January 18 and 20, 1959, Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, curator 
of archeology, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 
City to examine duplicate Egyptian antiquities with a view to obtain- 
ing objects suitable to our exhibits program. With the aid of Mrs. 
Virginia M. Pollak, Dr. Wedel selected 33 items for purchase. These 
include several reliefs, two baskets, a bedstead and stool, a wooden 
hawk case with hawk mummy, and a bronze hawk and small bronze 
mummy case. Practically all these will be suitable for exhibit and 
will provide displays that do not now exist in our Egyptian collec- 
tions. Karly in May, following the annual meetings of the Society 
for American Archeology in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dr. Wedel de- 
voted several days to examination of the collections of the University 
of Utah Museum, with particular reference to materials that are re- 
lated to Western Plains cultures. He also visited Ogden, Utah, where 
he examined an unusual collection, including many stone bowls and 
manos and a considerable variety of projectile points and stone orna- 
ments. The material acquired will be useful for exhibit and study 
purposes. 
Between July 7 and September 20, 1958, Dr. Clifford Evans, asso- 
ciate curator of archeology, and Dr. Betty J. Meggers, honorary 
research associate, visited Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. They 
spent 4 days in Panama City examining collections in the Museo 
Nacional and discussing problems of museum modernization with the 
director. ‘They also discussed in detail the possibilities of collabora- 
tive research, using the services of H. Morgan Smith, involving arche- 
ological sites now being discovered or destroyed by road or building 
construction. Subsequently Mr. Smith was appointed a collaborator 
of the Smithsonian Institution . 
Between July 19 and July 28, Drs. Evans and Meggers participated 
in the 83d International Congress of Americanists at San José, Costa 
Rica. This very successful meeting was attended by a large repre- 
sentation of scientists from Latin America, North America, and 
Europe. The Smithsonian Institution representatives participated in 
several important symposia dealing with the problem of the Forma- 
tive Period in Mesoamerica and South America, in addition to deliver- 
ing a scientific paper on the preliminary results of their archeological 
investigations in the headwaters of the Orinoco. At this meeting, 
Middle American and South American specialists decided that a 
coordinated program of research toward a solution of a specific prob- 
lem will produce better results than individual research projects. A 
536608—_60——3 
